by Madeleine Collins

Concern for the gospel to reach Sydney was the motivation behind the recent decisions to change the evening service, says the Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen.
While admitting it does not bring him ‘great joy’ to know that there is sorrow that the current service has come to a close, Dean Jensen said the Cathedral must be ‘for all people’, and the majority of Anglicans have voted with their feet when it comes to traditional evening services.
“I feel for the people for whom we’ve had to make this decision. There are people there who like going to church on Sunday night in the Cathedral as it is,” the Dean said. “[But] it’s important that our congregations across Sydney make our churches accessible and understandable to the public at large. The Cathedral actually needs to set standards for this kind of modern congregational meeting.”
The Dean’s comments come in the wake of controversy over the decision to close Evensong. It has been replaced by The Bible Talks (TBT), a ministry of the Cathedral currently meeting at Sydney Boys High School. Upon hearing about the decision TBT offered to relocate to the Cathedral to build an evening congregation from the central Sydney location.
The Dean and Senior Minister, the Rev Chris Moroney, have been criticised by some parents of the St Andrew’s Cathedral School choristers for closing the service. Parents say there was a lack of consultation leading up to last month’s announcement and the change will scale back the traditional role of the St Andrew’s Cathedral School choir in Cathedral life.
The choir will continue to sing on Wednesday mornings and Thursday evenings. Discussions are underway concerning introducing the choir into the present 8.30am service on Sunday morning.
The Dean and Mr Moroney say extensive consultation with the choirmaster, cathedral Chapter, lay clerks and the headmaster of St Andrew’s Cathedral School took place over a period of time. Most members of the evening congregation were contacted personally and discussion facilitated about their concerns.
Despite an explosion in high-rise living in the CBD in recent years, statistics show a 73 per cent decline in attendance to the Sunday evening service over a 17-year period. There were around a dozen active members in 2002.
This decline is matched by similar statistics for evening services across Australia and around the world – except in Sydney, Dean Jensen said.
“Against the national trend for the Anglican Church of Australia many of the parishes of the Sydney Diocese have retained and even grown their evening congregations by changing the format of services to better cater for the age group that is still likely to come at night.” He cited the city-fringe parishes of St Thomas’, North Sydney and St Barnabas’, Broadway as examples of this trend.
“The closure…was therefore a matter that we had to face sooner or later. There must come a point at which one admits that the opening of the Cathedral with a choir of 30, a professional choirmaster, a professional organist, two clergymen, and a full time lay stipendiary worker to minister to such a small number of people cannot be justified.”
Member of the Cathedral Chapter and Lay Canon Dr Andrew Cole has had two sons in the school, one of whom was Head Chorister until mid-last year. Dr Cole says such a connection between the Cathedral and the School is important, but changes in the evening service probably needed to happen eventually.
“I thoroughly enjoy traditional church music, being both an organist and a singer myself, but on the other hand the number of people who come to church and appreciate that kind of music is really becoming less and less as time goes by,” Dr Cole said.
“It’s more a question of finding the best means of expressing our faith in a way that people today can understand.”
But Sharon Liney, who has three sons in the choir, says many parents are deeply dismayed because they consider the move to be totally incompatible with the need to uphold the importance of musical worship in the Cathedral through the school choir.
“We see a reduced role for the choir. Lots of people send their children to the school because of its affiliation with the established choir. People were really, really upset,” Mrs Liney said.
“The Cathedral is not just another parish church,” she said. “It’s not like I don’t like being taught from the Scriptures but there’s a time for just worshipping God through the music. It’s been the most tragic demise of a spiritual and cultural tradition”.
However, Master of Choristers Michael Deasey said despite intense concern internationally that the choir is under threat it is not the case. “The choir is still strong, there is just one service that the choir used to sing at that is being changed to a different kind of service,” Mr Deasey said.
“I can understand that taking up all the resources of the Cathedral for a small group eventually has to be questioned.”
A joint statement from the Dean and the Head of School, Phillip Heath, said the School acknowledges the Dean’s desire to stimulate and broaden the Cathedral’s ministry within the City. “The School unreservedly supports the Cathedral in that vision,” the statement read. “Discussions continue…regarding possible wider choral and music support from the School for services and expanded music presentations in the Cathedral.”
The Dean said reform is difficult but necessary in order to grow. “Some changes will cause such disappointment to certain people that it will create considerable backlash and angst. There is no way we can change without disappointing some people, somewhere.”
The Diocesan Mission requires a 600 per cent increase in church membership across Sydney.